


By my side

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [71]
Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Oneshot, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:25:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: It's a month before she sees him again





	By my side

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on Tumblr, May 2017

It’s a month before she sees him again.

She knows where he is, and what he’s doing. Frank has a knack for staying in the news, his trail of dead mob bosses and maimed petty criminals makes it impossible to not be aware of him. And he’s always with Matt, be it brawling at night or working together here and there.

Still. He keeps his distance from her.

During that whole first week, Karen picked up the phone countless times, opened the door to go to him, angry and more hurt than she cared to admit. Every time, she put the phone down, closed the door. Let go.

Because, as much as it angered and hurt her, she had to understand that Frank is a complicated man. It’s not like he’s a player, some casanova, some boy with petty lies and an attitude. Since the first moment she met him, before even, Karen knew that.

And, even when he made her smile less than an hour after his enemies decided to redecorate her apartment with bullets, even when he looked at her in a way that made her think he was reading every thought inside her mind, she never intended to become closer to him, to become his friend, his source, his… anchor? Is that what he had said?

So, she waited. Breathed in and out, willed herself to be patient. And even started coaching herself into accepting that there was a possibility that she might never see him again.

It was unlikely, she knew him by now. Still, she considered it.

A month and a week later, give or take, she actually managed to go to bed in a reasonable hour. Got home from work, made a point to not turn the TV, cooked herself dinner, soaked in the bath for a while, got into her PJ’s and turned off the lights.

She was half asleep when she heard the window crack. The first thought in her mind was that it was Matt, looking for information, checking in on her. It wouldn’t be the first time. And he had a talent for coming in when she couldn’t or was unwilling to talk to him.

It wasn’t Matt.

She saw the shotgun before she saw him. His big hand wrapped around the barrel, the sleeve of his heavy coat. Then, his heavy boot, careful not to touch her carpet - he was always careful about not staining her place, removing his shoes and placing them on the fire escape before getting up.

It wasn’t different this time. He sat on the floor and she saw him unlace first one boot, then another, place them outside the window and then close it. All the while, she didn’t move, remaining with the covers over herself, watching him.

Frank put the gun down silently, not looking in her direction until he finished folding his coat and putting it on top of the deadly weapon he carried as if it were part of him, on the corner of the room, under the reading chair she had bought and was yet to read on.

Boots neatly tucked outside, gun and coat under the chair, he got up, finally looking in her direction, his expression softening when he met her eyes. Slowly, he got up and walked towards her bed, slowly, and she knew he was giving her time to stop him, if she wished.

And she considered. Maybe make it a bit hard for him. Tell him no, he didn’t get to look at her the way he did, kiss her the way he did, undress her with such reverence it made her shudder just as much as his lips on her skin, disappear on her and then come back whenever he felt like it.

But she didn’t say anything, just lied there, holding the covers to her chin, her toes wiggling at the sight of him.

Slowly, he got close, sat on the mattress, on the same side he had slept on, and lied down next to her, looking at her, and she saw all the yearning and the hesitation in his face, along with that thing that looked a lot like adoration.

“Hi”, he said, like a boy who knew he was about to be scolded. She would laugh at the notion that the Punisher was afraid of her if she wasn’t so mad and relieved at the same time.

“Where have you been?”

He sighed, shaking his head, closing his eyes for a long moment before looking back at her, adjusting his head on the pillow.

“I was trying to do the right thing. I know!” he said, interrupting her when she opened her mouth to call bullshit. “I know. I should have… Fuck. I’m sorry.”

Karen realized that she had closed her hands in tight fists around the covers she still held to her chin. Relaxing them, she swallowed and let out a silent huff of breath, looking at him.

“I don’t know what I’m doing”, he whispered. “I don’t know if I should stay away from you, because it’s dangerous, or if I should keep you by me, because it’s safer.”

And then he broke her. Her resolve, her anger, her frustration, the will to punch him in the face.

“But I’m pretty sure there’s no safer place for you then by my side.”

Suddenly, there was a lump in her throat and she was removing a hand from inside her warm blanket cocoon, reaching for his face, trying to stop a shiver from running up and down her body when he closed her eyes and leaned into her touch, pressing a kiss to her palm.   

“Don’t you dare run away from me again”, she said, holding onto that last shred of anger. “Because if you do, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

His lips curved into a slow, lazy smile that had no right to be charming, but it was.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I mean it, Frank. If you disappear again I’ll drop from the face of the Earth and you’ll never see or hear from me again.”

While she said it, he pulled the covers from her and over both of them, pulling her until she had her face tucked in the crook of his neck. Breathing in, she moved until she had her body intertwined with his, his strong arm around her, big hand running up and down her back.

“You should take a shower”, she said, letting him lift her face and accepting the kiss he pressed to her lips.

“Yes”, he said, taking his shirt off, moving to lie on top of her, and her hands dropped to undo his belt. “In a minute.”


End file.
